U of O grad gets extreme with latest sports selfie invention
Photo courtesy of Andre Bellerive, Spivo
While most of us like to snap selfies with friends or when we’re on vacation, University of Ottawa alumnus and Spivo co-founder Andre Bellerive prefers taking selfies while skydiving and mountain biking.
Bellerive originally came up with the idea for the Spivo, an extreme sport selfie stick while in a mechanical engineering class at the U of O.
Drawing inspiration from his many hobbies including skiing, BMX, mountain biking, and surfing, the idea came naturally. He designed a product that would make filming extreme sports a whole lot easier than it had been in the past.
When Bellerive and Spivo co-founder, Mark Bjerring, would go skiing, they’d always have GoPro on their ski poles, said Bellerive.
“But the second that your friend did something in front of you, or there was this cool thing in front of you, you’d either have to stop and manually unscrew the camera and then twist it back,” he said. “That would take a second, but just enough to ruin that run.”
The Spivo Stick offers a simple solution to skiers and other athletes who want to capture a 360-degree view without affecting their performance. This selfie stick is controlled using one hand and you can switch the camera view from front to back with the click of a button. It allows you to naturally capture more unique shots, making videos easier to edit, and far more enjoyable to watch.
“Since it’s one quick rotation, it allows you to not pay attention to where the camera is, so you can focus on hitting that jump, hitting that rail, while still being able to click the button and know where the camera is,” said Bellerive.
Spivo Stick not only allows you to do a sport without interruption, it also gives a better view than other sticks on the market.
“The most fun that I’ve had with it would be cliff jumping. It’s really fun to be able to show the cliff, then jump and switch back, and film yourself hit the water.”
For those wondering what happens if you drop the stick, it’s designed to be strong enough to withstand most falls that could take place during a given sport.
The Spivo comes in three fixed sizes, with the shorter size geared towards skydiving, with the longest geared towards skiing.
“The other nice thing is that it’s fully mechanical so you can go underwater, you can throw it in the snow, sand, can get in it… we really wanted you to be able to take it anywhere you can that you would want to film.”
Bellerive and Bjerring are currently accepting pre-orders for the Spivo Stick online, which will be released in November or December—just in time for ski season.
Bellerive is excited to watch his company grow, as the release date inches closer.
“In the near future we definitely will be hiring. We’ll be looking at getting people with business experience, sales experience, and that kind of stuff. We have a couple of future products, but we’re not going to unveil those just yet,” Bellerive said.
To pre-order the Spivo Stick, visit Spivo.com.
